Transportation chief puts Katrina highway price tag at $3 billion
FRANKLIN — U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta said Friday it will cost about $3 billion to rebuild highways damaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Mineta — who spoke after touring a shelter as part of President Bush’s national day of prayer — said about $1.3 billion will be needed in Louisiana, $1.1 billion in Mississippi and the remainder in Alabama and Florida.
But the secretary said progress is already under way to rebuild portions of Interstate 10, which he described as an economic lifeline to New Orleans. He said work also has begun to repair Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport and the Port of New Orleans.
Much of the city’s bus fleet was underwater and will have to be repaired, he said. In the meantime, substitute buses will be being brought in.
“From my perspective, I’m trying to get all modes of transportation back and running,” Mineta said.
Mineta recounted telling his staff he didn’t want a lack of transportation to choke off the region’s economic recovery. Officials “commandeered” electric generators to keep oil pumping through two major pipelines: Plantation and Colonial.
Transportation projects in Tennessee and other states will not be affected by the massive rebuilding, he said.
Mineta shook hands with volunteers and offered encouragement to evacuees at the shelter, a former gift wrap and ribbon manufacturing plant that’s been fitted with makeshift showers, row after row of beds, a clinic, child playrooms, job placement center and other services. It had about 80 occupants Thursday night, down from a peak of about 130.
After the tour, Mineta ate barbecue chicken with evacuees in a cafeteria. As he ate, a television in the corner showed boats drifting through New Orleans streets.
“Sixty percent of the city is clear of water,” he told a few men he was sitting with. “I think they’ll have all the water out by Oct. 12th.”
According to the latest estimates from the Army Corps of Engineers, most of the area should be dry by the end of this month.
After eating, the men who sat with Mineta said his visit made them feel that the federal government, which has been criticized as being slow to respond, is paying attention to their plight.
“He does care, and he shows it, too, in his conversation,” said Henry Byrd, a 51-year-old brick and cement worker from New Orleans, who stayed in his Carrollton home for five days after the storm, until his gas supply ran out. The flood water turned from brown to green to black, he said, and the stench and mosquitos and flies became unbearable.
“The raw sewage was a standstill. Every once in a while a boat would come by and (the sewage) would work its way toward you or away from you,” said Byrd, who described how he wept when he saw a woman and a young child draped over a tree, drowned, as he was being evacuated.
Robert Brumfield, who says he waited with 15 others on the Jeff Davis overpass for eight days, sleeping in shifts until rescuers arrived, said he appreciated Mineta’s visit but believes Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco should be here.
“I would like our governor to come here to show that she does care about her people,” Brumfield said. “She’s just on the news saying a whole lot of baloney. … After all, we’re the ones who got her elected.”